


Imagine

by prrincessyue



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-09 05:37:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12269973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prrincessyue/pseuds/prrincessyue
Summary: "The hours ticked by. The days got hotter and hotter. Toph couldn't stop thinking about Sokka.""Sokka' s Master" told in Toph's point of view with an added scene at the end





	Imagine

Toph felt good. She was well rested, eating a yummy breakfast, and best of all, her and her friends had done it again! This time they'd saved a town from a fire without the town even knowing, as Aang pointed out. _Man_. She loved being awesome with her bending, so much.

"Yeah, the worst part about being in disguise is that we don't get the hero worship anymore. I miss the love," she told Aang.

"Boo hoo," Sokka was quick to interject, "poor heroes." He was sitting apart from the group, his back to them and the table.

Before Toph could come up with a some witty remark he'd love, Katara was asking, "what's your problem?" and commenting on how he hadn't had any smoked sea slug. Toph fell silent.

As she listened to Sokka talk about how inadequate he felt next to everyone else and their superhero-like powers, her heart sunk. She'd assumed he was being pretty calm about his meal - and quiet in general - because he was deep in thought about the invasion; she hadn't realized he was upset. None of their efforts did anything to cheer him up, and Toph had never been around him this upset.

The worst part was that she remembered when she used to see him exactly how he'd described himself- _regular_. Now she knew that he was anything but regular, and only complete idiots couldn't see that. She had been a real idiot. 

She still felt bad about the whole "one on one, plus Sokka" thing, even if it had been fun to say. She often replayed it in her head and wished she hadn't said it. He was the only one really being nice to her at that time! She just hoped the friendship that they'd built, and her piping up with her support just now was any indication of how differently she thought of him now. 

"I hope you know, none of us see you that way," She heard Katara urge.

 _Exactly_. Toph felt her head nodding automatically.

* * *

Sokka's pick-me-up was going to be a shopping trip. Toph was skeptical of whether it would do much, but if it was what he needed she'd go along with it, without even making fun of him once. She stood by as he tried out weapon after weapon, and he seemed happy - back to good ol' Sokka. She was really, really glad to have him back.

And then he found the sword.

* * *

One week without Sokka was proving to be the most boring week of Toph's life - or atleast, of her life _post_ being unbelievably sheltered from the world with no friends. She thought it was probably the most boring week of Aang's at least, other than those one hundred years trapped in ice...okay, definitely Katara's. Toph didn't even care that she was from the boring South Pole, this was so much worse.

And it was so humid outside, the air was thick and Toph's armpits smelled _awful_.

The hours ticked by. The days got hotter and hotter. Toph couldn't stop thinking about Sokka.

While she was picking her toes, she replayed Sokka's little confession and wished she'd been the one to comfort him instead of Katara.

"Hey," she could say. "You should know that I was wrong, before. Instead of 'three on three plus Sokka', I should have said three on six."

Sokka would laugh, maybe a bit bitterly, because he was still feeling down. Either way, he'd reply, "Toph, even with me there are only four of us...unless you're including Appa and Momo"

That's when Toph would smile and punch his arm. "I know, you dunderhead. And I'm not counting our furry friends, it's because you're worth three men!!"

It was such a cheesy and exaggerated thing to say, but Sokka loved that stuff.

She imagined it over and over - while she lay perfectly still in her sticky, sweaty skin so the heat couldn't get to her (it still did), while she cringed at Aang and Katara's awful jokes, while she worked on Aang's earthbending. It was majorly distracting.

Sometimes in the end Sokka would protest, and Toph always had the perfect thing to say. Other times, he'd just pat her on the shoulder and get up, stretching his back and saying, "thankyou, Toph", his voice infinitely lighter.

Once, when she was trying to work on her sandbending under the merciless sun, she imagined the whole thing again for the millionth time. But this time, in the end he leaned over and kissed her. _Right on the mouth_. And it was perfect, because it was in her head and in her head they were perfect.

Her sand sculpture of Bosco crumbled. She was never gonna get her sandbending down at this rate.

* * *

"Oh, Sokka, you _saved_ me!" Toph leaned in and gave him a big kiss on the cheek, just like that; she'd always been blunt.

"Ofcourse I did! All in a day's work," Sokka's arms tightened around her as he began swimming to land.

It had always been that way, when she remembered it. When she fantasized about it, he had been the one to save her.

Maybe if she'd been the one to comfort him, she could say, "clearly I think of you as a hero, I thought you'd saved me at the Serpant's Pass! And you _could_ have." She even caught herself thinking "Sokka, you're _my_ hero."

 _Spirits_. What a load of Junk.

On second thought, though, maybe she wouldn't bring that up- it was pretty embarrassing. Apparently topics concerning Sokka were the only things that could embarrass her. And even though she really did like Suki -

Toph would recognize those footsteps anywhere. Sokka was coming!

As soon as she announced it, Aang and Katara were on their feet, ready to give him a hug. She joined in the group hug, but couldn't bring herself to gush like the other two. Not when how she'd imagined kissing his cheek felt was still fresh in her mind. He turned to Toph. "What's with them?"

She couldn't stop the heat scampering up her neck and into her cheeks as she shrugged, turning away. "They missed you or something. I didn't care."

_What a load of junk._

* * *

Sokka wasn't back to stay, he just needed their help. He was much happier now, and excited. And so she moved the dumb meteorite, torturing herself over what she'd said the entire time.

"I didn't care."

She had no idea why she'd said it. It wasn't like there was anything wrong with missing your dear friend, even if you hadn't stopped being able to think about how it might feel if they asked you out, took you to their favourite place- anyway. It was kinda a jerky thing to say, especially when he'd just been feeling so under appreciated, and no doubt vulnerable

 _Way to kick a guy when he's down, Toph_ , she thought, but really he was the opposite of down right now. He was like, flying way up near the sun, he'd found cloud nine and a part of him had been awakened by the spirits, or something.

Really, it didn't matter at all - she was obsessing for nothing.

He didn't seem to care.

* * *

When had she started caring so much? She tried pinpointing the moment she'd started, well, _like_ -liking him (because there was no arguing that she didn't, at this point) while she hung out at the Sword Master's castle, but she was drawing a blank.

 _Was_ it when he was the only really nice one to her? She knew it wasn't - but it was definitely before the Serpent's Pass.

Aang and Katara chattered about how impressed they were with Sokka's work ethic, and just how downright cool melding a sword looked, but Toph had to admit that melding a sword - even a meteorite sword - didn't look all that special to her. She was too entirely lost in thought to join in anyway.

The truth was, there probably was no one moment when it happened. It was a slow thing, a flower blooming petal by petal, just like how growing friendships takes time. It had probably started happening since day one - it had just been happening for way too long now, clearly. The only conclusion she drew was that even if she didn't have a _crush_ on him (spirits, she hated that word), she'd still care just as much.

When he ended up fighting the Sword Master who she had thought was pretty cool up until this point (but who she still secretly found a little cool) sure, she was worried, but she was still thinking. It occurred to her that... _maybe_... she only liked him like that cause he was the first teenage boy she was ever able to make any sort of connection with.

She considered it for a second, but then shook her head. Because that couldn't be it, right?

She turned her attention to the fight. Sokka had better win.

* * *

"Toph, I thought you might like this,"

Toph's fingers grazed the cool surface as she grabbed the chunk of meteorite, weighing it in her hands. An easy curve of the fingers, a flick of the wrist, and she grinned. She was thrilled at the satisfaction of it molding into shape, of her having control over every curve in the swirl she'd made. It was awesome! She'd never bent space earth before. Was it even earth anymore, then? Cause if not she was one heck of an earthbender (but she already knew that).

They were walking back to camp. Toph elbowed Sokka, all chummy-buddy-what-good-pals.

"I know," he said, a smirk in his voice. "You're welcome."

Toph just grinned and said, "actually, I was just gonna say how beautiful I think you're sword is, so maybe you should be thanking me."

"Really?? Well yeah, thanks, that means a lot-"

By the time he caught on to the old joke Toph was already laughing.

" _Hey!_ "

Sometimes, she thought that she wouldn't want it any other way.

* * *

That night, after the somewhat cool night air had settled in and everyone else had gone to bed, she finally had the opportunity to get him alone.

"Sokka?" She started. She stood over him with her arms crossed.

He had just set up his tent and was sitting outside it, essentially just admiring his sword. He set it down.

"Yes, Toph?"

"Look, you were really great with that sword today. I'm sure you've been doing great work all week."

"Heheh, I guess you could say that..."

"What do you mean?" She started absentmindedly bending her now space bracelet into different shapes. A square, a star, a circle.

"Well, y'know, I thought I messed up all his tasks. Rainbows and lounge chairs-"

She had no idea what he was talking about. "Ok, look." She cut him off and sat down next to him. She pulled her legs into her chest and hugged them, resting her chin on her knees.

"I know it was a long time ago, but I just wanted to apologize for what I said, well, a long time ago. You know, when you were being an absolute baby about not getting any sleep? And I said 'three on three, plus Sokka'?"

Was that what she'd said in her head, when they were perfect?

"Hey! You were a baby, too!" His voice cracked.

She laughed, getting more comftorable. It was just Sokka - her _friend_. "Not nearly as much as you were. And are you forgetting when we had to give up our Ferry tickets?"

"Ok, that was an entirely other thing."

"Anyway, even if you were being a baby, what I said wasn't true." She shrugged as her voice became gentle and articulate. "Even before you got that space sword, you were always such a valuable member of this little...team."

"Team Avatar," Sokka murmured.

Toph continued. "We're all proud of you with this, and I think it's great, but you definitely never needed to prove anything to us."

Sokka nodded his head wordlessly, temporarily forgetting that Toph wouldn't see that, and allowed a silence to stretch across the night air between them. Toph was overcome with the realness of the situation, and it was a strange feeling because after imagining countless scenes so similar to this, (well, this was the closest she was gonna get to those scenes, anyway)in places she had no idea how they'd found, it felt surreal. Almost unreal, but weeks of travelling with Sokka also made it so familiar.

"Hey..." Toph broke the silence unsurely. "Alright, i'm gonna admit something. You've actually probably figured it out by now anyway, I guess."

Sokka didn't say anything, so Toph just kept saying what she wasn't sure why she felt the need to bring up.

"This is my first time _living_ , Sokka. I don't have a guard watching over my every move. I don't have a guard to _run_ to when three pesky kids come along asking me to help them end a war. I don't think you guys realize it, but this is all so new to me. I've really just been winging it, but i've learned a lot from all of you."

Sokka chuckled softly. "Yeah, that can be pretty...easy to forget. Because, Toph. You're amazing. Probably the best earthbender, like _ever_. I mean, who just makes _metalbending_ a thing? You've entirely blown me- all of us- away. And it isn't the same, but I can understand where you're coming from. I'm not saying I didn't get to be my own person, but I've gotta tell you, the South Pole's pretty small."

Toph nodded and tapped her fingers against her knees. "Is it _bad_ that...I don't know. There's this war going on, that's why we're here, but i'm so grateful for it. Not the war, but _this_." She lifted her head and splayed her arms out, gesturing all around her.

"I know what you mean. And, I don't think it's bad. I've actually thought about it a lot, and if it weren't for the war my village wouldn't be so tiny, and maybe your parents wouldn't have been so paranoid. So, you know, we would have something else to be grateful about - that came out wrong. Well, kind of. Spirits, it's hard to explain..." Sokka rambled.

But it was still true, wasn't it? That in a strange way, Firelord Ozai - no, Firelord _Sozin_ , even - had brought Toph and her friends together, was responsible for their unique bond? Her fingers found her knees to tap out a non-existent rhythm again, and her head hung forward.

"Look," Sokka dropped his delicate act of grasping for words while simultaneously barfing out nonsense and sighed. "I know almost nothing can seem justifiable, at this point. But you're still allowed to enjoy things during a war. In fact, you kind of have to." 

Toph's fingers slowed against her leg. How had they managed to stray so far from what she'd come here to say? "Wow, that was deep," she joked. And then sincerely, "Thanks, Sokka."

"Well, can I ask you something in return?"

The fact that she didn't even hear an ounce of sarcasm in Sokka's voice made Toph feel much, much more weird than it should have. So much so that it was as if she had bugs marching over a bridge across her belly, crawling all over itchy skin. She pushed her legs down straight in front of her and swallowed.

"Sure, ofcourse"

"You just said yourself that you have no idea what you're doing... so then, how are you so _confident?_ I sure couldn't tell you had no idea what you were doing"

At that Toph actually laughed, though she wasn't sure why, and then the realization that she didn't know how to answer that trickled in. He was right, that was something she never really struggled with - especially since joining the group - but it was just because it came so naturally to her. Like her bending.

"Sokka, I could totally kick your ass in a fight." She started, wondering if she was even gonna end up answering the question, come up with something mid-sentence.

"I- what? I know, but-"

"That really isn't anything to go by, though. I could kick anyone's ass. But what i'm saying is, I know that Aang and Katara and I, we're pretty much all prodigies, with our bending. So we're really good in combat. Now, what you can do without bending? That's pretty impressive. And that swords really cool, but we all know you're still not the best in combat. You're definitely no prodigy."

Sokka shifted his weight beside her, almost like he was flinching away from her.

"Still, you've never fallen behind. You carry your own weight and you always have our backs. You find a way- I find that fascinating. And Sokka, what you are is just a genius, really. That's all there is too it. It's incredible."

He'd inched closer to her then, close enough that she could feel his warmth and breath. Even she could tell that he was smiling.

So Toph smiled too, and milked it. "And fighting wise? It's almost more impressive, you and that boomerang of yours, since you don't have, like, a _gift,_ or whatever" Except it wasn't really milking it, cause it was arguably true. Enough that it deserved to be said. "It might look less cool, though. I really can't say."

"You know what I've realized from this conversation?" Sokka spoke, his voice a pure Thank-you. "You're actually smart, for a twelve year old girl."

And Toph kept smiling. "Did I answer your question?"

"Not at all."

They laughed together even though it wasn't very funny, but at least Toph knew why she was laughing this time. Sokka shifted so he was parallel to the tent and fell back, his weight a soft thud against the dusty earth. His thud was followed by a lighter one, a Toph-shaped one. 

"I mean, I can get what it's like to live in a world where everyone else has these great abilities that you just don't have. There's this thing called _sight_ that sounds pretty cool."

"Oh, god, and here I am complaining that I can't just move elements with my mind all willy nilly. I'm sorry, Toph" 

But lying there next to Sokka, the occasional bird or rustle of leaves the only sounds, it didn't matter. That wasn't even what she'd been trying to say - never. Even as he was looking up at the stars, the beautiful, magnificent stars she'd never see, she'd never let her blindness define her. 

"No, Sokka, it's ok. Don't you see? I hate being considered weak, helpless, and so I made myself the opposite. Just continue to find a way, like I have. It can make you - and I don't mean to brag -  _stronger_." 

"Thankyou, Toph." He actually said the words this time, and he said them carefully, as if they were delicate and could get lost between them. As if she had given him a gift that he desperately needed to repay her for.

Toph just closed her eyes and pushed her palms and feet into the lush grass and beneath that, the ground. She felt the earth hum all around her. A scattering of tokens left by reckless people and dropped by nature, a line of ants filing down a tunnel into their home, a tigerdillo's footsteps in the distance. Katara and Aang asleep in their tents, their breathing steady.

Stronger she most certainly was.

"You're welcome, Sokka." 

* * *

That was the last thing she said to Sokka that night. The conversation had obviously come to a close, and they settled into it comftorably - no need to drag it on in any sort of awkward way. Toph lay there, soaking in the sweetness of that night and letting it seep into her, fill her up. Eventually Sokka's breathing slowed beside and he was asleep, so she set up a rock tent around him and wondered over by Appa before setting up a rock tent of her own.

Toph felt good, and she slept like an absaloute baby. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
